


you're a marked man (brother)

by SafelyCapricious



Series: ain't no grave can hold my body down [21]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern with Magic, Curses, Gen, Selkies, Werewolves, computer labs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-22
Updated: 2020-10-22
Packaged: 2021-03-08 22:53:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,462
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27144106
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SafelyCapricious/pseuds/SafelyCapricious
Summary: It’s three in the morning and the computer lab only has seven people in it.Katara looks up from the help desk to tally the students again and make sure no one has vanished.When she first started her trainer had told her a horror story (that she insisted had actually happened but Katara just wasn’t sure). The story was about the time a ghoul had gotten into the lab and managed to pick off three students before the student worker had even noticed.
Relationships: Katara & Zuko (Avatar)
Series: ain't no grave can hold my body down [21]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1950148
Comments: 7
Kudos: 47





	you're a marked man (brother)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [BornDead](https://archiveofourown.org/users/BornDead/gifts).



> Title from Marked Man by Mieka Pauley
> 
> Partially inspired by this:
> 
> Mostly inspired by borndead.
> 
> For day 21 of fictober, wicked b/c I threw that word in there quickly.

It’s three in the morning and the computer lab only has seven people in it.

Katara looks up from the help desk to tally the students again and make sure no one has vanished.

When she first started her trainer had told her a horror story (that she insisted had actually happened but Katara just wasn’t sure). The story was about the time a ghoul had gotten into the lab and managed to pick off three students before the student worker had even noticed.

She’s pretty sure she’d be able to smell a ghoul — but it never hurts to make sure she hasn’t lost anyone. Four are still frantically working on ‘works sighted’. One is staring at pictures of shrimp and sighing wistfully. Live shrimp not the food kind. And she really doesn’t want to know. One is playing Oregon Trail which — three am seems like a poor time to do so, but it’s a good game, even if he did just die of dysentery again.

The last student is, she’s pretty sure, cursed.

Or, at least, thinks he’s cursed.

Honestly it’s hard to tell if he actually is with all the electronics around, but the stuff he’s looking up indicates he probably thinks he is. Of course, you could create the effects of a curse by convincing the person that they were cursed without actually cursing something…

Katara tried that once on her brother, but he didn’t get it and so it didn’t work.

Or maybe werewolves are just immune to that kind of curse. She’s not entirely sure and she hasn’t tried since. Which is probably good because Suki would probably be affected by anything that cursed Sokka and Katara doesn’t want the kind of karma that would come from hurting Suki.

Or the just general ass-kicking that would probably be her future.

She only considers offering to help the guy for a second before she gives it up. That’s really not part of her duties as student worker in the computer lab and she really doesn’t get paid enough to give more than like sixty percent.

Plus he’s cute, but he looks like a hipster and after Jet she’s really not into hipsters. If she hears, “it used to be cool before everyone else got into it” one more time she’s going to drown someone.

Figuratively speaking. She is absolutely against the stereotyping of selkies, mermaids, and sirens and that all they care about is drowning people.

Like sure, historically it was a thing they did, but never unprovoked! Though of course people refuse to look at the reasons — claiming that drowning is never the answer.

Katara knows that if anyone ever took her skin and kept her a slave she would definitely drown them as soon as she got it back. Of course, Sokka would probably rip their face off as soon as they did, so it’s not really a concern for her.

In any case, the dude with the curse — psychological or cast — has a man bun and a real set of whiskers that he’s definitely spent a lot of time grooming. He’s got a burn scar on his eye — she hopes that’s not the curse. Fire curses are the _worst_.

She can’t see what he’s looking up from where she is — he’s just got that pinched look that screams ‘curse’.

Looking over the whole lab again she verifies that no one has vanished, and then she clicks a handful of buttons on her own computer. Technically she’s only supposed to nanny someone’s computer if she thinks they’re looking up porn — but it’s three thirteen in the morning and she’s bored.

As soon as she has a copy of his screen on hers she snorts.

Okay, so maybe he’s not cursed, maybe he’s just stupid.

She should probably tell him he’s not a werewolf, it’s probably the right thing to do. But — oh no — he’s not even on a reputable website anymore he’s looking at porn now but she’s like almost a hundred percent sure he didn’t mean to.

Covering a snicker with her hand she opens up the chat so she can talk to him directly on his screen.

Staff: _Yo, genius, you’re not a werewolf._

Comp. 5B: _…What?_

Staff: _I can see your screen, buddy, and I can tell you — you’re not a werewolf._

Comp. 5B: _No, my sister did a thing and now I’m a werewolf. I’ve been having cravings for raw steak._

Staff: _I would kill for a good steak right now, rare, and I promise you I’m not a werewolf. You’re not either._

Comp. 5B: _You don’t know my sister._

Staff: _No, but I know my brother. Who is a werewolf. Tell you what, you want an introduction? He’ll tell you you’re not a werewolf._

Comp. 5B: …Is this like a only one werewolf in a town kind of thing? Are you trying to get me killed?

Staff: _You know what, you’re right, you’re definitely a werewolf and I am definitely out to get you. Good luck with your whole thing. Make sure to stock up on steak, buddy. Also that site you’re on is porn and totally violates computer lab code, so I’m locking you out for forty eight hours. Get some sleep._

And then she locks his computer with the click of a single button.

His head jerks up and he scowls over at her and she cheerfully waves back at him, wrinkling her nose and smiling obnoxiously wide.

She’s pretty sure he’s trying to growl at her, but he’s _really_ not a werewolf. Though now that she’s looking at him she’s pretty sure she knows what curse his sister did, because she’s pretty sure his beard is getting longer while he’s standing there. Anger based hair growth curse — and dude must be a ball of rage.

So he might not be a hipster.

And she’s pretty sure he’s hot behind the angrily growing facial hair, but well, she shot that one in the foot in a rather large way.

Ah well, three thirty am is basically always time for regret, so that seems reasonable.

She continues to flutter her fingers at him as he angrily shoves papers in his bag and storms out. His hair explodes out of the bun as he goes, and the giggles finally escape.

His growl is not even vaguely wolf as the doors slide shut behind him.

Ah well, it’s not like she’ll ever see him again. He’ll probably avoid the computer lab when she’s scheduled to work now that she’s locked him out.

***

In an unfortunate turn of events, it turns out angry not werewolf guy works at her favorite coffee shop. With Suki. And Yue.

Aka, the one coffee shop she’s not allowed to abandon because the staff will literally make her life a living hell if she goes somewhere else and she isn’t capable of making her own coffee when she first was up.

He’s clearly shaved since the last time she’s seen him — because otherwise his beard would be down to his knees. But the coffee shop has only been open for like twenty minutes and he’s already sporting a heavy five o’clock shadow.

Shockingly she suspects that the coffee shop is _not_ good for his anger issues. Which means he’s getting anger hair.

She should probably tell him what his curse is.

“I’m just mad because it’s close to the full moon,” he’s saying when she walks up to the register.

“No,” Yue disagrees, “you’re just an asshole and have no concept of customer service.”

“Still not a werewolf, hairy — and I’m starting to think you’re not great at research, hey?” Katara says, leaning obnoxiously on the counter more because she’s got too much blood in her caffeine stream and she’s working on only about four hours of sleep. “Caffeinate me Yue, before I also start to hallucinate that I’m a werewolf.”

“You know you can’t replace sleep with caffeine, right?” her brother’s first girlfriend says with an arched eyebrow — but she’s typing something into the register because Katara has secretly always been her favorite.

“I can try,” she returns before her gaze goes back to angry hair boy who is already starting to sport an actual beard. “Angry hair — s’a spell that your wicked sister would’ve had to set a time limit on, gotta be less than two weeks, you’ll be fine. You might need one of those drain things though, so you don’t clog everything.”

Yup snorts and holds out a hand, and Katara slaps her credit card into it.

“I’m a werewolf, I told you!” he protests violently.

She could almost be convinced he’d a werewolf by that, except that she’s been living with Sokka her whole life and yeah, no.

“Whatever you say, hair boy.”

**Author's Note:**

> find me on my [writing tumblr](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/capriciouswrites) to yell.
> 
> love love love love.


End file.
